Constantine P. Cavafy (1863 – 1933)

The frivolous can call me frivolous.I’ve always been most punctilious aboutimportant things. And I insistthat no one knows better than I dothe Holy Fathers, or the Scriptures, or the Canons of the Councils.

Cavafy is intrigued by the comic possibilities created by the indirect relation of poets to the world. While the man of action requires the presence of others here and now, for without the public he cannot act, the poet fabricates his poem in solitude.

He was a quiet, gentle man,a man who loved peace(his country had suffered muchfrom the wars of his predecessor),he behaved graciously toward everyone,humble and great alike.Never high-handed, he always sought advicein the kingdom’s affairsfrom serious, experienced people.

As the shores of Ithaca graduallyFaded away behind himAnd he sailed swiftly westwardToward Iberia and the Pillars of Hercules,Far from every Achaean sea,He felt he was alive once more,Freed from the oppressive bondsOf familiar, domestic things.And his adventurous heart rejoicedColdly, devoid of love.

We for the best will strive. And always moredefective, more perplexing than before,shall all things fare; until, as in a mist,we stray bewildered. Then we shall desist.For in that helpless hour the gods attend.They always come, the gods. They will descendfrom their machines, and straightway liberatesome and as suddenly exterminateothers; and having reformed us, they will go. —And afterward, one will act so; and soanother; and in time the rest will doas they needs must. And we shall start anew.

From his biographers we know how cautious and reserved Cavafy was, how reluctant to talk about himself. Although he frequented cafes and saw many people, his loneliness remained unalleviated. This poem is a rather unusual confession for the poet, especially since it comes so early in his life: Now that you've wasted your life here, in this small corner, you've destroyed it everywhere in the world. The "City" is a summing up of the poet's life, starting with the desire for escape, for a journey, the last hope for a new beginning and ending with the realization that the journey is impossible because once a life has been ruined in one city it will be the same in any other. What separates him from society will not change from city to city.

He who hopes to grow in spiritwill have to transcend obedience and respect.He'll hold to some lawsbut he'll mostly violateboth law and custom, and go beyondthe established, inadequate norm.Sensual pleasures will have much to teach him.He won't be afraid of the destructive act:half the house will have to come down.This way he'll grow virtuously into wisdom.

The Spartans weren't to be ledand ordered aroundlike precious servants. Besides,they wouldn't have thought a pan-Hellenic expeditionwithout a Spartan king in commandwas to be taken very seriously.Of course, then, "except the Lacedaimonians."

Cavafy has three principal concerns: love, art, and politics in the original Greek sense. ... As a witness, Cavafy is exceptionally honest. He neither bowdlerizes nor glamorizes nor giggles. The erotic world he depicts is one of casual pickups and short-lived affairs. Love, there, is rarely more than physical passion, and when tenderer emotions exist, they are almost always one-sided. At the same time, he refuses to pretend that his memories of sensual pleasure are unhappy or spoiled by feelings of guilt.

Speak not of guilt, speak not of responsibility. When the Regiment of the Senses parades by, with music, and with banners; when the senses shiver and shudder, it is only a fool and and an irreverent person that will keep his distance, who will not embrace the good cause, marching towards the conquest of pleasures and passions.All of morality’s laws – poorly understood and applied – are nil and cannot stand even for a moment, when the Regiment of the Senses parades by, with music, and with banners.

He was a man who starts at a certain age with all signs showing that he's unable to produce anything of importance. And then, by refusing and refusing things which are offered him, in the end he finds, he sees, as they say; he becomes certain that he's found his own expression. It's a splendid example of a man who, through his refusals, finds his way.

In his poems about the relations between Christians and Pagans in the age of Constantine, Cavafy takes no sides. Roman Paganism was worldly in the sense that the aim of its ritual practices was to secure prosperity and peace for the state and its citizens. ... after Constantine, it was the Christian who had a better chance than the Pagan of getting on in the world, and the Pagan, even if not persecuted, who became the object of social ridicule.